Head in the Clouds
by Shadowed Horizon
Summary: Annie's got her head in the clouds and just can't come back down. Reincarnation/multiverse AU. One-shot.


She likened it to looking out of the window of an airplane.

Watching the houses as the plane gained altitude shrink beneath her felt liberating, something she hadn't felt since – no, she wouldn't say. Couldn't. The thin wisps of cloud that appeared as the ascent continued never obstructed her view, but they were still _there_. A nuisance.

The problem – when it got harder to see ground – started when the plane cleared the first layer of clouds and kept going. Because then there were only gaps in the cloud cover through which she could see the ground, but only in fleeting glimpses.

Some people found that being surrounded by the clouds was peaceful, something that Annie didn't understand. There was nothing comforting about having totally unfamiliar surroundings and not being able to anticipate or react properly to a situation. For her, though, the absolute worst part was seeing breaks in the cloud that were too far away from the plane to really see anything. It was _there_, just – there was nothing she could do, and Annie hated that.

"Are you referring to one flight, specifically?" I asked when she hadn't spoken for a few minutes. "When you make this comparison, I mean."

Annie just shrugged. "I've only been on a couple of flights but I can't explain it any other way without being too convoluted."

"You used past tense," I noted, staring down at my notes.

"Yeah."

I couldn't figure out what to say to that so I let it slide. I absently tapped my pen on the desk. What was it about her description that bothered me?

Oh yes. "What about the rest of the flight?"

Annie just looked at me.

"You never described it," I reminded her gently.

I caught the flash of unease in her eyes as she looked away. I followed her gaze to the clock above the door frame; her session was up. I bit back a sigh; I'd never hear it now. I knew that I was lucky to get so much out of her today, but I felt like I just needed this one last bit of information before I could really try and help her. From what I knew, her depression started when she started experiencing vivid dreams about what she reluctantly called a "past life". Too surreal to be taken seriously, but too real to dismiss as a regular dream.

I stood as she did, striding to the door to hold it open for her. She slung her backpack over her shoulders and adjusted her white hood as she came toward me. Instead of walking out without a word, as she usually did, she stopped before me, exhaled forcefully, and looked up at me. I could see the ages-old torment in those blue eyes that told tales no sixteen-year-old should ever know.

"I'm still up in the clouds." In a softer voice I didn't know she had, a plead that I was shocked to hear: "Help me land, Dr. Hoover."

And she left, hiding her pain under the white hood once again.

* * *

**A/N:** Hoover, Fubar, whatever you want. Sorry for the cheesy flight metaphor? Below are things I didn't want to include in the fic.

How SNK ends for the purpose of this fic: Hanji eventually manages to decrystallize Annie, who learns that Reiner and Bert were both killed. She dies as a POW, having been forced to live out her days in extreme guit. She never even knows if her dad lives.

AU: Annie starts having these awful dreams and re-experiencing the intense remorse and sense of loss. She doesn't know they're flashbacks; they're just crazy nightmares that make her depressed and physically sick. Her parents force her to go to therapy - this is her fourth session or so - because her health is deteriorating (she sees a doctor too), and because they've never heard stoic Annie scream in her sleep before and it scared the bejeesus out of them. Bertholdt happens to be her therapist (he's like 32 and looks a lot older - they're not the same age here so she doesn't recognize him), but unlike Annie he remembered everything instantly and became a therapist to try and make up for what he did before. He knows exactly what's up with Annie but is helping her cope at her own pace rather than revealing everything all at once.

Whether or not the others are also reincarnated - specifically Reiner and Mina - is up to you. But Annie hasn't met any of them before Bertholdt.

Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed it.

**-S.H.**


End file.
